Setting up in Saudi Arabia

Brian Street, General manager ? RMD Kwikform Saudi Arabia.
[More Images]

How long did it take you to move into the Saudi market?

Brian Street, general manager – RMD Kwikform Saudi Arabia, answers We agreed to enter the Saudi market about 18 months ago, but it took some time to go through all the processes and we didn’t get our commercial registration until July. Now we have set ourselves up as a 100% foreign-owned company in Saudi Arabia.

Mark Hardaker, general manager – Sika Saudi Arabia, answers Sika actually started in Saudi Arabia in the 1970s and for various reasons it left the Kingdom in 1984. Since then we have maintained a presence through distributors, but as of the beginning of this year we established Sika Saudi Arabia, which will be manufacturing and selling all our products locally.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT What is your marketing strategy is it 4 P?s 5 P?s 7 P?s or 8 P?s and currently how is your business flow, I think for cu   1 Comments Read more comments »

What kind of market share do you think you can achieve?

Brian Street answers Saudi Arabia is a great opportunity for us and we want 30% of the market within three years. The expectations are extremely high but it’s a big market and hopefully we will achieve that.

Mark Hardaker answers We have an 8% to 9% market share at the moment which would probably make us the number three construction chemicals company in Saudi Arabia now. The goal is to be number one
within three years.

What do you think of the competition in Saudi Arabia?

Brian Street answers We see a huge gap in the market because, with the exception of one Austrian company, the state of the competition is very poor. There is very little product innovation and the level of service that customers seem to accept is extremely low.

Mark Hardaker answers Our competitors have had a virtual monopoly on the market, since Sika left in 1984, but have been sitting on their hands with no service and old fashioned products. We will soon be offering full technical support to our clients, as well as the latest in innovative products.

Have you noticed other international competitors moving to the KSA?

Brian Street answers There are certainly other people expressing some interest in coming here, particularly a number of other companies with Dubai operations, but it is an administrative nightmare and we were probably just a couple of years ahead of them in that process.

Mark Hardaker answers Sika has a lot of smaller competitors in different markets, but there are only a few large companies in the chemicals sector and they are already in Saudi Arabia. Our main rival will be BASF, which like Sika, is a quality company.

What will be the biggest challenge in the next 12 months?

Brian Street answers To be honest the main obstacle for us will be getting visas for our employees. The company is established but we are operating on skeleton staff which is pretty stretched, so visas will be the
main priority.

Mark Hardaker answers In Saudi Arabia it is very hard to find quality people that are hard working and willing to come and join a multinational company, both locals and expatriates. This business cannot run without the right people and getting them will be the biggest challenge.

What benefits will you bring to the market?

Brian Street answers The market here is highly labour intensive and a big part of our job is to educate these guys about the overall benefits of using an engineered formwork system which will be more efficient and cost effective in the long run.

Mark Hardaker answers Our goal is to instill an idea of innovation that welcomes products which might be more expensive, but are able to do the job more effectively and efficiently than the stuff currently in the market. This will often save contractors money overall and improve quality.